When we were created we ran barefoot to survive to chase and hunt for food and to move camps. But that was before concrete got invented and we started to run for fitness, recreation and competition rather than survival (but given the obesity epidemic we may need to run for survival!). Because of the invention of concrete, we needed another invention – the running shoe. The commercial enterprises obliged.

Along with the running boom came the running overuse injuries and the running shoes became a convenient target to blame. Despite the evidence pointing to a whole range of training errors, biomechanical factors, muscle imbalances, the blame was still being laid by many at the running shoes. Out of this grew a movement that advocated running barefoot, as that was the way were created and it is natural.

A search of the web throughs up some amazing alleged benefits of barefoot running, including faster race times; increased strength of the foot, legs and hips; the biomechanical problems disappear;  and less injuries. Despite all these claims on barefoot running, there is absolutely no evidence that it is beneficial compared to running in proper running shoes. There is also no evidence that it is not beneficial either. A number of studies have compared running shod to barefoot, but all they showed was what the differences were and not if one was better than the other. Unfortunately the supporters of barefoot running point to this research to show it is better!

The support in some sectors for barefoot running has become somewhat fanatical. They like to quote nonsensical unscientific mumbo jumbo to support their cause. They use any evidence that is negative about running shoes to support their cause, but because there is a problem with running shoes does not prove that barefoot is better.Trying to argue a religion is sometime easier than trying to rationally dicuss and reason with these people. You are never going to win, regardless of the logic and the evidence.

Barefoot running quite possibly might have some benefits, but based on the available evidence to date, we just do not know. It also has some risks. Any balanced running or fitness program probably should have a number of things in moderation and barefoot running could be one of those things. If the wrong runners try barefoot running, then there is great potential for it to be harmful.

The barefoot running movement also like to claim that podiatrists are opposed to barefoot running due to their vested interest in foot orthotics, which is a silly claim to make as they would be happy to recommend it if the evidence supported it. There are some very interesting discussions on barefoot running on a podiatry forum, Podiatry Arena. Just check out some of the barefoot running forums to see how balanced the Podiatry discussions are compared to the zealotry.